Legacy

Introduction to Legacy

Legacy, in the law of wills, gift or bequest of real or personal property by will. A legacy becomes effective after the death of its author, who is known as the testator. The three principal types of legacy are a specific legacy, which consists of a definite article of personal property or parcel of real property; a general legacy, which consists of a certain amount of money payable from the estate as a whole; and a demonstrative legacy, which consists of a certain amount of money to be paid the legatee, or recipient, from a specific fund or other definite source named by the testator. Examples of these types of legacies are the following: (specific legacy) “I bequeath to my son A. B. my watch and all my jewelry”; (general legacy) “I bequeath to my son A. B. the sum of $1000”; (demonstrative legacy) “I bequeath to my son A. B. the sum of $1000 payable to him out of the proceeds of the securities of company X that I may own at the time of my death.”” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Legacy in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Legacy

The Legal History of Legacy

This section provides an overview of Legacy

Resources

See Also

• Legal Biography
• Legal Traditions
• Historical Laws
• History of Law

Further Reading

• Legacy in the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (Oxford University Press)
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Political and Legal History (Oxford University Press)
• Legacy in the Dictionary of Concepts in History, by Harry Ritter
• A Short History of Western Legal Theory, by John Kelly

Spanish Translation of legacy

This is the legal translation of English to Spanish in relation to legacy and / or a definition of this topic: Legado (in Spanish, without translation of the dictionary entry).